The second day of the MLG Columbus was full of games, disappointments, upsets and a tiebreaker. The results of the scheduled nine rounds of matches to be played today would set the seeding for the playoff, with only four teams being able to progress.
After an emotional and difficult tournament start for Not Today, after the def-loss melodrama and the reschedule being “un-rescheduled” stutter, the Peruvians go back home without any wins. MLG Columbus first day woes have taken center stage on all social media platforms, leaving very little information and talk about the actual games played. Additional focus has been around the lack of soundproofing for the players. Excitement climaxed with a tiebreaker between Empire and NiP for the grand final spot, while the biggest upset was from EG, who finished fourth, barely being seeded into the Step Ladder brackets.
Game 1
Balkan Bears Corleone vs. Evil Geniuses
With the draft starting, BBC banned two of the most fearsome EG heroes, Chen and Storm Spirit, while EG just took out the nuisances of the patch, Zeus and Troll. Peter “PPD” Dager baited BBC into picking Meepo, with a few good counter-picks such as Sven and Batrider. The game did not go very well for BBC, as EG completely shut down their off-lane, Spirit Breaker, which had extremely low impact in the game. Meanwhile, Universe’s Batrider was out of control by minute 7, having a dagger on him and a successful rotation on Omar ‘w33haa’ Aliwi’s Meepo. Even though Meepo was getting a lot of farm, EG was able to keep him under control. Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan’s solo Roshan was a high point, as well as the amazing Batrider plays and Clinton “Fear” Loomis’s Sven exploding with farm and networth. EG was able to slowly get their objectives completed and take down towers. Even though the game ended after 40 minutes, it felt as if the fame was over very early on.
Game 2
Not Today vs. Team Empire
CIS teams seem to love the aggressive play style. Team Empire was able to grab Tusk for this match, one of their most successful heroes of this patch. The Russians started snowballing early in the game, even though some of the fights did not go as well as expected. The kills were even until a Roshan attempt by Empire was hijacked by Not Today, helping Jesús “ifrit” Valencia on Medussa get the first big item, Eye of Skadi. After that, Not Today started to push the mid T2 tower and got off a favorable trade of four kills for two deaths. That was about the last play and notable action from the team, as they ended up giving kills after kills. After a full five man wipe by Empire, Not Today had lost their hopes and called the game.
Game 3
MVP.Phoenix vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
The drafting was interesting on both sides, although MVP.Phoenix’s draft was reminiscent of the old meta, with Kim “Febby” Yong-Min’s Jakiro as core. MVP.Phoenix started this game taking objectives early on, as their draft did not allow them to make many mistakes and play late into the game vs. the NiP line-up. Unfortunately for them, they did make a few mistakes, giving Jonas “jonassomfan” Lindholm’s Clockwork a very good early game. NiP’s line-up started to become a certain threat after the mid/late game. MVP.Phoenix began losing momentum. The game ended in a very traditional way, NiP managed to clean house after a late and desperate smoke Roshan.
Game 4
BBC vs. Not Today
In the pick/ban phase, BBC banned out two of the most current popular mid/carry heroes, Sniper and Troll. Not Today responded with IO ban and respect ban for w33ha’s Meepo. As the game started to progress, the decision of picking the Broodmother after BBC already had an Axe and Dazzle turned out not to be the best choice, considering Axe got a 7-minute blink dagger, which allowed him to make plays and create space. All that being said, the laning phase was fairly equal: the three lane did not go as well as planned, but the Slark-Tinker-Axe core grew too fearsome with ganking and farming potential after the mid game. A few skirmishes later, both kills and deaths being exchanged for each team, the game remained even. A few die-backs sealed the game and NoT called GG.
Game 5
NiP vs. Empire
Empire started the draft with a traditional Sniper ban and a respect ban on Chen, and entered the game with couple of the strong meta heroes, such as Vengeful Spirit and Troll. NiP tried to come up with a solution for Empire’s good laning phase and strong five-man push. However, less than 15 minutes into the game, NiP lost a lot of power, allowing Empire to get ahead in gold. Empire started pushing top lane barracks, and although NiP counter-played them with a few buy-backs, it wasn’t enough to stop Empire from regrouping and crushing every lane, one by one.
Game 6
EG vs. MVP.Phoenix
Even though EG grabbed their favorite hero, Storm Spirit, for SumaiL, EG’s line-up was unable to handle the pressure coming out from MVP.Phoenix’s rotations. Fear had a bad start due to Tae Won “March” Park’s Disruptor’s good rotations. SumaiL’s Storm Spirit wasn’t doing that well either, and MVP.Phoenix was able to capitalize on this and set the game on their course. Being able to play as four heroes, left room for Febby’s Anti Mage to farm as much as he could as fast as possible. Not even an amazing Storm Spirit aegis steal and the fight that followed was enough to gain control or secure the win.
Game 7
Team Empire vs. BBC
This game started with Empire being pretty confident and pleased with their group stage standings. They respect banned W33ha’s Meepo, despite its low win rate in official matches, lately. The game was different with BBC taking a Windrunner for carry, which did not put enough weight on Empire’s heroes, such as Axe, Phoenix, Phantom Assassin and Broodmother. The game was progressing quickly with many kills all around the map, most of them favorable trades for Empire. While BBC was focused on stopping Axe and dealing with the pressure they felt from him on the map, they let PA get out of control and allowed her to snowball, with no heroes or strategy to help deal with it. GG was called, after Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok’s PA got out of control.
Game 8
MVP.Phoenix vs. Not Today
This was the last game of the tournament for Not Today, as they had already lost all of their matches and had no chance to go further. The game was pretty interesting at the beginning, when Not Today had some very nontraditional picks, with Bryan Freddy “Smash” Sina as Invoker in their line-up. The game was set-up for fighting and not much else. MVP played an awesome game and had NoT in the palm of their hands, quickly pushing the game to an end.
Game 9
EG vs. NiP
While everyone knows about the famous NiP signature Tiny-Io combo, EG didn’t seem very concerned about it. This proved to be a big mistake. The game was very one sided even since the beginning. The upset was caused by the Swedes’ flawless execution and plays, with NiP getting kills all over the map and EG not being able to deflect them. PPD called GG after 17 minutes.
Tiebreaker game NiP vs. Empire
With both teams being tied in the Round Robin Group stage at 4-1, the winner of this match would be seeded directly into the grand finals, while the the other would be placed into the semifinals. The banning stage started off with Empire banning two of the most respected/feared NiP heroes: Chen and Io. The early game was not lookng very good for NiP, since Empire was able to punish some of NiP’s greedy choices. The Night Stalker pick did not pay off as much as it usually does, and NiP’s mid-lane suffered a lot. Exceptional plays by Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov who got a few kills on Storm Spirit, forcing a buy-back from him, moved NiP further away from their chances to be seeded directly into the grand finals.
Team Empire advances directly into the MLG Columbus 2015 grand finals. MVP.Phoenix and Evil Genuises will play the first game of the Step Ladder, today, at 18:00 CET.
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